While the global economy slows down, network security spending continues to be robust as business and IT leaders seek to protect corporate assets, thus avoiding a major distraction when market focus is needed most. Recent analyst numbers suggest that data loss can result from myriad corporate security vulnerabilities. It’s getting harder to protect a company’s intellectual property as the modern concept of work is based upon anywhere and anytime electronic collaboration and the borderless enterprise. Nasrin Rezai, Senior Director of Information Security for Cisco Systems is my guest as we discuss PPT or People, Process and Technology as the strategy to mitigate data from being lost or stolen from your company.

To understand best practices of data loss prevention, you need to listen to this podcast.

While the global economy slows down, network security spending continues to be robust as business and IT leaders seek to protect corporate assets and achieve compliance, thus avoiding a major distraction at a time when market focus is needed most. The largest corporate security vulnerability is data loss and it’s getting harder to protect it. Here’s why.

This presentation is a detailed market research of the perceptions and behaviors of remote workers. The data is based upon a study of employees and IT professionals around the world. As part of the study, surveys were conducted in 10 countries because of the differences in social and business cultures. In each country, 100 end-users and 100 IT professionals were surveyed, producing a total of 2000 respondents. Security considerations for IT organizations are identified.

This presentation is detailed market research identifying the risks and challenges of data leakage for businesses and employees around the world. The data is based upon a study of employees and IT professionals around the world. As part of the study, surveys were conducted in 10 countries because of the differences in social and business cultures. In each country, 100 end-users and 100 IT professionals were surveyed, producing a total of 2000 respondents. Risky employee behaviors are identified along with mitigation approaches.

Data loss resulting from employee behavior poses a much more extensive threat than many IT professionals believe. Commissioned by Cisco and conducted by U.S.-based market research firm InsightExpress, the study polled more than 2000 employees and information technology professionals in 10 countries. In the hands of uninformed, careless, or disgruntled employees, every device that accesses the network or stores data is a potential risk to intellectual property or sensitive customer data. Magnifying this problem is a disconnect between the beliefs of IT professionals and the realities of the current security environment for countless businesses. The new findings show that “insider threats” have the potential to cause greater financial losses than attacks that originate outside the company.

A set of findings from a global security study on data leakage revealed that many companies do not have security policies—and that security policies that are in place are often ineffective. The survey included more than 2000 employees and information technology professionals in 10 countries. The findings offer insight into how the use and effectiveness of security policies affect data leakage: As the lines blur between work and home, and as employees use an increasing number of interactive applications and devices, data loss has become one of the most prominent concerns for businesses around the world. Creating, communicating, and enforcing sensible security policies are critical to protecting corporate assets.

To understand the challenge that increasingly distributed and mobile businesses face in protecting sensitive information, Cisco commissioned third-party market research firm InsightExpress to conduct a study with employees and IT professionals around the world. As part of the study, surveys were conducted in 10 countries because of the differences in their social and business cultures. The research discovered that despite the security policies, procedures, and tools currently in place, employees around the world are engaging in risky behaviors that put corporate and personal data at risk. To reduce data leakage, businesses must integrate security into the corporate culture and consistently evaluate the risks of every interaction with networks, devices, applications, data, and of course, other users.

The Cisco Virtual Office solution enables organizations to extend the campus or headquarters office network environment to remote sites or teleworkers. The solution includes voice-enabled and video-enabled IP communications and collaboration applications enabled by advanced network and security services that are easy to deploy and maintain. As part of the Cisco Virtual Office solution, Cisco and their approved partners can help you successfully deploy and integrate headend solution components and guide you through automating the deployment and management of remote sites by providing support for planning, design, and implementation. They also help you reduce operating costs; keep devices working efficiently; and continually assess, tune, and evolve your Cisco Virtual Office to keep pace with changes in your business and evolving security threats through ongoing operational support and optimization.

To find out more about Cisco Virtual Office Services download this paper.

The Cisco Virtual Office solution provides secure network services to workers at locations outside of the traditional corporate office, including teleworkers, full- and part-time home-office workers, mobile contractors, and executives. By providing extensible network services that include data, voice, video, and applications, the Cisco Virtual Office effectively creates a comprehensive office environment for employees regardless of their location. This short white paper is an overview of Cisco Virtual Office. Give it a few minutes and you will have a great understanding of its offering.

Cisco Systems engaged Miercom to evaluate the Enterprise-class Teleworker (ECT) solution, the precursor to Cisco’s new Cisco Virtual Office. ECT is a highly scalable Cisco IOS Software solution that securely integrates network and management infrastructures and applications all within a single device. The folks at Miercom run ECT through its paces. With many of the same features of CVO, this is a good testing report that demonstrates some of the important CVO features.

Cisco Virtual Office is a highly scalable solution for medium and large organizations looking to provide teleworkers, small offices, and mobile users with an office-like experience combining voice, video, wireless, and real-time data applications in a secure environment. Cisco Virtual Office features zero-touch deployment, allowing enterprise IT staff to provision and manage large-scale deployments with improved efficiency. Multiple access methods for workers at home, workers at remote offices, or mobile workers can be aggregated into a converged VPN without the need for separate aggregation and management models. The solution integrates layered identity services that provide control over the devices and users that use the network as well as the extent to which various users have access to resources in trusted and untrusted domains.

Working from home has always been a different IT experience than being in the office. Home connectivity was restricted to dial-in, VPN and client-based solutions. Voice service was usually the house phone. Then broadband came to the market and connection speeds ramped up, offering faster application performance, which was better but still a major downgrade from the office IT experience. This poor experience dampened the growth of teleworking, which was good news for most IT leaders as their concerns were security vulnerabilities and management. But with advanced integration of networks and communications the gap between office and home IT experience is closing fast. In addition a confluence of factors ranging from green initiatives to governmental requirements, work-home life style changes, business expense controls, business continuity and new teleworking solutions are giving business and IT leaders the motivation to embrace and massively deploy teleworking solutions.

Working from home has always been a different IT experience than being in the office. Home connectivity was restricted to dial-in, VPN or client-based solutions with voice service usually being the house phone. This poor experience dampened the growth of teleworking, which was good news for most IT leaders as their concerns were security vulnerabilities and management. But with advanced integration of networks and communications in a small appliance the gap between office and home IT experience is closing fast. A confluence of factors ranging from green initiatives to governmental requirements, work-home life style changes, business expense controls and new teleworking solutions are giving business and IT leaders the motivation to embrace and massively deploy teleworking solutions. Mr. Calvin Chai, Senior Marketing Executive at Cisco is my guest as we discuss Cisco’s new Cisco Virtual Office offering, a teleworking solution that can be deployed in scale.

In this Lippis Report we offer an update to Network Access Control (NAC). The NAC market is at a pivotal point, as a key piece of technology that offers a third mode of operation is about to enter the market. This third mode, based upon authentication and distribution of NAC functions across existing appliances and network infrastructure will enable NAC to scale across an enterprise from its early deployments of guest, wireless and remote access to headquarter and campus LAN environments. We offer a view of how the NAC market is progressing and detail this distribution of NAC functions and enabling mode of operation which will allow business and IT leaders to build strong defenses in one of their most critical IT assets, the campus LAN.